I grew up with four siblings and an amazingly smart mom in a small town in Indiana. My mom taught us that we could do anything we set our minds to. Although we didn’t have much money, and we had our share of disappointments, I knew in my heart that I would always be ok.
Through high school and college, I was an achiever! I earned a bachelor’s degree from Miami University, Oxford OH and a Master’s Degree in communications from Marquette University and I was on my way. To where? I wasn’t sure, but I knew I was going.
After college, I started dating Dan Plesac…he had been my friend since my freshman year in high school. He had just completed his rookie year with the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team. Within a year, I had quit my first job, moved to Milwaukee and became a Major League Baseball wife. This started an 18-year journey of living someone else’s dream. I tried to hang on to me, but it was tough to do in the fast pace life that required Dan to be gone 9 months a year.
In 1992, we became parents to our first daughter, Madeline, and our second daughter, Natalie, came along in 1995. I struggled to balance the needs of our girls with the demands of his career, which included spring training, baseball trades and the general pressures of professional sports. In all of that, I lost me.
Even more devastating, after 18 years of marriage, I realized that we no longer shared the same dreams or goals. When we divorced in 2005, I found myself in a major life transition. Although I had my degrees and had been active as a volunteer and board member for several non-profit organizations, my career had always taken a back seat and I realized I didn’t even know me. It became time to find my own path–it was time to reinvent my life. I could finally focus on my career and become person I knew I was meant to be.
Over the next seven years, I worked in Community Relations for a regional campus of a Big 10 University—where I was able to job-share with a friend, giving me the flexibility to be there for my girls- but I always felt something was missing.
When I started training with Martha Beck to become a Life Coach, I found that something! For the first time, I felt like I fit. I was with people who understood. I felt validated in my work and put simply, I had found my tribe!
I saw that my life’s work could align with my authentic self and that by helping others create lives and careers that were in line with who they were, they could live authentically too. Through my training, I am becoming the woman I was born to be. I’ve never been more in touch with who I am, and I hope to help you feel the same!
